::URBAN COMMUTER::


			COLUMNS
	HOME ARCHIVES COLUMNS DETRITUS IMAGES	date: December 18, 2001 PEW ROBBERY We all know that December is the single most crime-filled month of the year in the Philippines. We all know it and yet don't really practice any safety precautions right? Well, here's one crime that takes the cake. Every year in this mainly Catholic Christian country called the Philippines, we have a novena of dawn masses (that's 9 straight days of the Holy Mass in honor of the Virgin Mary) right before Christmas. It starts evey year on December 16, and depending on the church you typically visit, the masses are before sunrise. Anytime between 4:30 am and 5:30 am for the 9 days before December 25. Well, a friend named JQ, who lives in the Valle Verde I subdivision, went on the very first night this year. He drove his family to his subdivision's activity center to attend the mass. It was 5:00 am, and everyone was sorta groggy, having gotten up way before sunrise. Sometime during the reading of the Homily, while everyone was standing, a bunch of collection baskets were passed around. The collection started out in the back-most rows and ended one row before it. And JQ, being a bit confused (it wasn't offertory yet, why were they passing the basket already?) looked around and saw other people putting money into the baskets from sheer habit, so he digs into his shallow (unemployed) pockets and coughs up 20 hard-earned pesos. And then forgets about the entire thing.







\|\|\|		Lo and behold, when offertory comes, the baskets are once again distributed. At this point some people scratch their heads and wonder why it's being passed a second time. But that's about it. Now somewhere near the end of the mass, the lector announces a SECOND collection for the benefit of some charity that the village is supporting. This is when everyone in the back rows start asking each other: "SECOND collection? Isn't this the third?" After mass, a few people go up to ask the priest why there were THREE collections but only two announced. The priest answers: "Huh? There were only two collections." Looks like there are quite a few creative thieves this time of year. And they have PROPS! Merry Christmas!